When animals are exposed to an extreme environmental stress, one of three possible outcomes takes place: the animal dies, the animal avoids the environmental stress and survives, or the animal tolerates the environmental stress and survives. This review is concerned with the third possibility, and will look at mechanisms that rare animals use to survive extreme environmental stresses including freezing, desiccation, intense heat, irradiation, and low-oxygen conditions (hypoxia). In addition, an increasing understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in environmental stress tolerance allows us to speculate on how these tolerances arose. Uncovering the mechanisms of extreme environmental stress tolerance and how they evolve has broad implications for our understanding of the evolution of early life on this planet, colonization of new environments, and the search for novel forms of life both on Earth and elsewhere, as well as a number of agricultural and health-related applications.

中文翻译：

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动物对极端环境的抗性机制和进化。

当动物受到极端环境压力时，会发生以下三种可能的结果之一：动物死亡，动物避免环境压力并生存，或者动物能够承受环境压力并生存。这篇评论与第三种可能性有关，将探讨稀有动物在极端环境压力下生存的机制，包括冷冻，干燥，高温，辐射和低氧条件（低氧）。另外，对环境胁迫耐受性涉及的分子机制的日益了解使我们能够推测这些耐受性是如何产生的。揭示极端环境压力耐受性的机制以及它们如何进化，对于我们对地球早期生命进化的理解具有广泛的意义，